This invention relates to a golf tee setting device for pressing a golf tee into the ground.
During a round of playing the game of golf, a golfer inserts a tee into the ground a number of times. The purpose of the tee is to support a golf ball at a desired height appropriate for driving the ball with a selected golf club. Generally speaking, the tee should be relatively high if the club is intended to drive the golf ball through a relatively low trajectory, such as by a 1 wood or a driver. As the number of the club increases, the trajectory increases and the tee should be correspondingly pressed further into the ground to support the ball at progressively reduced heights above the ground. Also, the initial shot with some irons, such as a 2 iron, may be hit with a tee and the best height for the tee for one of these irons maybe different from the optimum height for woods.
Most conventionally, a tee is inserted into the ground manually. The golfer estimates by feel what height is attained when the tee is pressed into the ground. Because of this unscientific and inexact procedure, variations in height of the tee above ground are inherent, resulting in unpredictable variations in the character of the drive of a golf ball struck by a golf club. It is still more difficult for the golfer to accurately set the heights of tees corresponding to different golf clubs. All of these uncertainties are further compounded if the golfer is relatively less experienced or as is often the case, does not actually know what should be the optimum tee height for a given club.
Setting a tee at the proper height is also made difficult because the density or hardness of the ground may vary. Sometimes, a mere difference in pressure required to insert a tee into the ground will result in different judgments by the golfer of whether the tee has been set at the proper height. Under extreme conditions, the ground may be so hard that insertion of the tee is almost impossible and sometimes a tee is intentionally broken to facilitate setting it low to the ground.
Because of one or more of the foregoing problems, various devices have been provided for use in setting a tee. These devices are typically inconvenient or cumbersome to use or are expensive or involve several components. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,331 requires that a coin be fitted into selected slots and then, to use the device, it is necessary to hold the coin in place from opposite sides while also attempting to hold a tee against the coin. U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,848 requires the threading of a disk within a body member. This device requires a screwdriver and typically the setting is rarely adjusted. The devices in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,660,837, 4,526,369, 3,074,719, 2,950,110, 4,142,719, and 3,671,037 are complex, expensive, and cumbersome to use.